PetroChina Reports Oil Discovery in Jambi Province

PetroChina Co., the biggest oil and gas producer in Asia, has found oil in Jabung block, Jambi Province, that is expected to add 2,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day to the company’s total production level in Indonesia. The find comes amid PetroChina’s drive to double its Indonesian production by 2012.

The discovery was made in the Marmo-1 Wild Cat well in Marmo field, Jabung block. It will bring the current production of the block to 59,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day — 71,000 barrels if oil condensates and gas are included.

“Initial production of 500 barrels will take place early next year,” Budi Setiadi, the company’s vice president for Indonesia operations, said on Friday.

PetroChina drilled seven wells in Marmo field in August. The exploration test in the Marmo-1 well discovered the 2,484 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 9,911 standard cubic meters of gas per day, Budi added.

PetroChina operates the Jabung block and owns a 27.8 percent stake, while Malaysia’s Petronas holds a 27.8 percent stake. Other shareholders in the block include PP Oil and Gas Ltd. (Indonesia-Jabung) with 30 percent and state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina with 14.3 percent.

As part of a 20-year contract with Singapore, PetroChina is to supply the city-state with 3.7 million standard cubic meters of Jabung gas per day via a 450 kilometer pipeline connected to the Corridor-Duri pipeline through Batam Island.

The company is currently developing oil and gas production fields in Papua and East Java Province with a total production level of 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

As part of its plan to double production in Indonesia to 200,000 barrels per day by 2012, PetroChina also expects to drill 58 wells in the next 12 months, Wei Zhigang, PetroChina’s president director said.

In Sumatra, the Chinese energy giant is operating in three blocks, including Jabung, Bangko and South Jambi B.

The company is preparing to drill a second delineation well in the Kenong field in Bangko block after it observed a total gas flow rate of 396,436 cubic meters per day in the field, Zhang Honglin, PetroChina’s senior project manager said.

“We are also preparing drill sites in Siter and Organ to test the potential,” Zhang added.

The Siter and Organ sites are located in Bangko block’s West Piano field. At East Java’s Tuban block, Budi said that PetroChina would continue its hunt for hydrocarbons by drilling five more exploration wells over the next two years.